Scott (Not?) Free?

San Jose, CA – The eighteenth of September, today, is Scotland’s chance to decide if they want to be a free nation.

According to The Guardian, the British Newspaper of British Newspapers, Americans up until the last few days have not shown much interest in the Scottish Referendum on Independence, because, as one described it, we "thought it already was free ever since we saw Braveheart."

Well, it’s not. They fly the Union Jack, their representatives are in the British House of Commons, and the Queen of England is the Queen of Scotland. But besides that, although Americans may not know much about it, for the most part it seems they are in support of Scotland leaving. “Freedom? Good! Freedom from Britain? Join the club! We are original members!”

The campaign was long and hard. It started with NO way ahead, and freedom looking like it didn’t have a pipe dream, but then changed to YES gaining ground, until everyone who was anyone in the United Kingdom joining in the debate, even yesterday, a famous sport player switching from neutrality to supporting YES for freedom. The queen even got involved. (Sort of. She said something about it in an informal setting, which with her and her popularity is the same thing.)

However, there are some possible reasons why Americans may be concerned if Scotland were to leave. One of America’s greatest allies would lose a third of its land mass, have a new and foreign country on the island, no longer would they be alone there. The oil import/exports would be disrupted, and even worse for England, and Scotland as well, the military pool would become much smaller. There would be two different currencies on the island, etc.

At ten o’clock tonight in Edinburgh, the capitol of Scotland, home of the Royal Mile, the place of so much history, the polls will close in the homeland of William Wallace. No one has bothered to pay the money necessary to hold exit polls, so there will be none. The results will not come out until sometime around eight o’clock Friday morning in Scotland, when the expected over 4,000,000 votes are counted.

And so we wait, to find if the Scotts will finally be free.

Andrew C. Abbott